When Base Balls Became Baseballs

In the early days of baseball, the balls were nothing like what pitchers throw today. They called them dead balls, but they might as well have called them beanbags.

On January 5, 1934, the National and American Leagues agreed on a new ball, one that would remain largely unchanged until today.

Today’s design is so consistent, the 2017 World Series erupted in controversy and accusations of scandal when the 2017 World Series graphic printed on the game balls reportedly ruined the ball for throwing sliders. Even worse, it improved game balls for hitting.

We’re talking about a print-thin golden stamp on the balls. That’s how specific the players expect the ball to be now. That specificity came into play in 1934, under an agreement between the league owners of the MLB.

Rounders

The game we know today as baseball comes from a British game called rounders. It’s been around since the late 18th century, sometimes referred to as base-ball. That was how Americans spelled it too for a few decades.

Rounders took its name from the action of players rounding the four bases to score points, otherwise known as “rounding the bases” in baseball today.

As America was wont to do, like we did with rugby, we decided to standardize this base-ball sport. Historic credit goes to Alexander Cartwright for nailing down the basic rules of early base-ball.

He was the same person whom players can thank for swapping out that soft ball used in rounders for the first baseballs, which were tighter, a little smaller, and more responsive than rounders balls.

Dead Balls

Early base-balls were the product of cobblers as they used the same materials to make balls as they did shoes. The first standard came to light in 1872, establishing what remains the weight and size of a baseball today.

Those 1872 balls were not the same as today’s. There was no core, so they were in essence, dead balls. Baseball historians define that time as the dead ball era, in part, by the ball design of the day. It was also the league’s tendency towards being a pitching sport.

Back in the turn of the century, corkless balls were the least of a batter’s concern. It was the ball dripping with tobacco spit that caused a bigger hitting challenge.

Ending the spitball era was part of ending dead balls, but there was also a design change which came about around the same time.